1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a heating furnace for home and industrial use that is capable of using a variety of liquid fuels and converting them catalytically to gaseous fuels that can be fed to other heating devices or to combustion engines. The heat produced can be circulated through heated air or heated water systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Furnace technology making use of fuel oil is well-known and widely used. However, fuel oil is generally used in large-scale heating situations. Storage and supply constraints and the higher ignition temperature of fuel oil as compared to natural gas have limited its use in home heating in the United States to areas in the Northeast.
Because fuel oil is not as flexible in its applications as fuel gases, technologies have been developed to convert fuel oil to fuel gases. These technologies make use of catalysts to accomplish the necessary chemical reactions and distillation process to separate the resulting fuel gases from the fuel oils and, in some cases, to separate the fuel gases into components. However, catalytic conversion and distillation are normally carried out on an industrial scale. Heat is given off as a result of catalytic conversion and distillation processes; in industrial processes some of this heat can be recaptured to sustain the process, but much of it is wasted. A need exists for a device that will put this heat to use directly in small building and household applications.
For the production of quantities of fuel gases that can be used in a home or small building, a need exists to scale down and to integrate the catalytic conversion and distillation technologies.